


Ice Road Honky Tonk Blues

by JoAsakura



Category: Overwatch (Video Game), overwatch
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7614853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is an amazing slowed-down version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" making the rounds right now, and it inspired the first draft of this, tapped  out furiously on my phone while I was on a stationery bike at the gym.</p><p>Just a moment in the First Omnic Crisis</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Road Honky Tonk Blues

 

The First Omnic Crisis, as far north as you can possibly be in North America

They’re in what used to be a truck stop, on the edge of the arctic circle. Too risky to engage the Far North Omnium with an air attack, too many defenses. The UN has already lost too many soldiers and this the sort of Situation that the Overwatch strike team has been assembled for.

Trying to keep a low profile, they’ve been creeping overland through the snow, CAT treads grinding monotonously across an icy highway abandoned to the war. Every small town they've passed has been empty. And this place, windows dark and frozen over, looks like it's been abandoned for a lifetime.

Jack wonders, huddled against the cold, if every place where humans live will look like this if they fail. He has to keep faith that they won't.

With the humans long fled and the omnics clearly uninterested in the place, it makes a better campsite than any they've had since they hit the road.

It’s not long before Torbjorn has the heat working enough to make it liveable and Reinhardt's found cases of half-skunked beer in the basement. The only food still remotely edible is a collection of frozen, sugar-filled snack cakes but the mood is lighter than it's been in days. They keep the lights low and the carrier hidden, but it’s a relief to be out of the vehicle and somewhere else for a change.

Gabriel had brought the guitar as a half-joke about the monotony of the mission, but as he strums it, idly in the gloom of the diner, it’s better than the sound of the wind howling outside. “Hey cornfed, what’s that song you like?” He asks, already picking out a downtempo intro. "It's this one, right?"

“Gabe, _sir_ , no.” Jack slumps into his awful beer, grateful the poor lighting hides his face.

“No, no, c'mon Jack. We've all heard you sing in the shower. Grace us with that pretty voice!” Ana salutes him and the others start to chant.

“I hate you all and, respectfully, the lot of you can go to hell.” Jack flips off the room then takes a swig of beer, letting the words rise up, slow and sad. “Jolene , I’m beggin’ of you please, don’t take my man.” He sings, pretending the bottle is a microphone. For a moment, he's uncomfortably aware of the relative silence, just his voice and Gabriel’s guitar.

He meets his commander's glance as he reaches the chorus, and both Gabe and Ana take up the harmony. Reinhardt’s drumming on a table as the rest of the team picks up the beat. 

Jack doesn’t notice he’s moving, dancing to the mournful beat until he’s almost on top of Gabriel, and he can see a flush of red on those dark cheeks that matches his own.

“Don’t take him even though you can.” Jack's embarrassed when he realises he’s pleading with whomever Gabe might have left behind in L.A.

They never talked about other lovers, that night they stumbled into bed at SEP, and he can still taste Gabriel’s sweat if he closes his eyes. It’s too much, and his heart is beating too fast, so he takes a long drink and let's the others finish off the last chorus.

There’s soft hoots and applause as Jack flashes a sloppy salute and chugs back another beer to drown his shame as he  sits down, but Gabe’s gaze on him feels red hot. It's almost enough to make him run back out into the snow.

~~~

It’s not until much later, the team curling up in the booths for makeshift bunks, that Gabe finally sets his guitar down, and catches him by the waist.

“Don’t you worry, carino. I ain’t goin’ anywhere.” He whispers as they sway together to the echoes of the song. “I don’t need a summer's rain when I have my very own farmboy.”

"Careful, sir. People might start to think you're sweet on me." Jack presses his forehead against Gabriel's and they burn together as the winds howling outside hides the sound of their kiss.


End file.
